Perils insured against…. What does that mean? Let’s see if I can take off my insurance man hat for a second and put on my investor hat. Why? Because I believe this is where A LOT of insurance folks tend to lose their clients. It’s a simple thing, but we often get too caught up in the insurance lingo when we are explaining this stuff. So, here is my best attempt.

A peril is stuff that happens to cause a loss. So, stuff that happens, for which you are insured, is a covered peril.

Okay. Sometimes you will hear an adjustor or an insurance agent say something like, “in the event of a covered loss.” Well, what in the world is a “covered loss?” How could you know? That’s where the policy form comes into play. Policy forms are like a series of hooks on a wall, so we take our policy and we hang it on a form, then every time we read something like “in the event of a covered loss,” we can look at our hook, and we see if it’s covered in the policy.

Okay, so there are essentially 3 types of “hooks” or options for rental property insurance buyers. There are basic, broad, and special forms. That’s easy, but of course you will often hear agents referring to these as DP-1, DP-2, or a DP-3. This basically says it’s a dwelling policy with this kind of form… Now, each form has a list of stuff that gets covered. Basic being the worst and special being the best. Now that I have gone all insurance guy on you, let me break it down visually so that you can understand it.

THIS IS A GENERALIZATION, CHECK YOUR POLICY! THERE ARE THINGS THAT CAN CHANGE THESE LISTS LIKE THE PROPERTY BEING VACANT OR OTHER FACTORS!

Now before you get all crazy and say, “hey Broad has most of what special has, I bet I can save some money,” slow your roll. Let’s look at that last one; Risk of Loss with Exclusions. What does that mean? It means that unless the insurer specifically excludes it, it’s covered. That is a HUGE difference. In the first two options the insurer will only cover a handful of things, and if it’s not on the list, then it’s not covered. The last option, the special “hook,” says if it’s not excluded, its covered, which leaves hundreds of covered situations with a handful of exclusions.

LONG STORY SHORT? You’re special so get special. It’s as simple as that.

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